B e s p o k e K e e p e r ' s S c r e e n

BESPOKE KEEPER'S SCREEN
By Grey Dog Designs
Web: www.greydog-designs.co.uk
E-mail: greydog_designs at yahoo dot co dot uk
£25.00

I love Call of Cthulhu products and Chaosium's tend to be of uniformly high quality, but I've always had a problem with their current version of their Keeper's Screen (CHA 2387). The insides are suitably well laid out but I've never been a fan of the build quality or the cover art (indeed I find the J.T. Snyder cover art for the d20 Call of Cthulhu Games Master screen better, which features the cover from the 5.6 edition rulebook). However the main problem I have is with the actual flimsiness of the screen: it is tri-fold and made from card so thin that if you put a candle behind it, it becomes virtually translucent. I find its size is often not big enough to keep all my nefarious plans hidden.

Not for me.

Knowing of my dissatisfaction with the screen, a colleague pointed me to Sarah Evans' Grey Dog Designs web site (www.greydog-designs.co.uk). Sarah is an artist with a history of RPG illustration and merchandise design. She also makes custom Keeper's Screens.

I ordered a 'Haunted House' screen, it's hand made from mount and foam board and finished in acrylic, 14 inches tall and not an inconsiderable 30 inches wide; the doors open, the windows have a transparent leaded effect, it's light for it's size and it tri-folds for easy storage. What makes this special is not the size but the attention to detail that's gone into its production, every part carefully crafted and painted.

As this is a bespoke screen a plethora of options were available, frosted windows, glow-in-the-dark clock dial, pretty much whatever you can think of. The inside of the screen is blank, but can be filled with information at your request.

It looks great, but how does it play?

The screen is suitably imposing and allows me plenty of room for my fiendish plans. If you go for the size I've got – make sure you've got the table space. What's also nice about the screen is that it's also visually interesting for the players and seems to help them better into the mood of play, especially with the odd candle or two shining through the windows...

Any picture does not really do this screen justice, all I can say is that when mine was delivered at Dragonmeet 2003 in London, it drew a considerable number of admiring glances. This is a handmade artistic (and so far very durable) item. If you're looking for something different and personal for your games (or those of a loved one) I would certainly recommend making further enquiries.

Besides screens for horror games, Grey Dog Designs also offers ones for other genres such as Sci-Fi, Modern, High Seas adventure and Fantasy. As they'll all handmade, the choice is yours.

Now to do some more plotting behind my wall of ignorance and despair. You lucky players!

© Paul Maclean